Really Stupid HP Question...Sigh.

[Stinkydancer]

I feel stupid even for asking this as long as I have been making soap.

I do mostly HP and love it. But here is the thing- no matter what I do I can't get the airholes off of the sides of my soap. I bang- smoosh- pour in teeny layers. Bang and smoosh some more- I have even overfilled.

Still holes- I think banging makes them worse. They get a little better with smooshing.

I know I could trim the sides of the soap but I hate wasting soap and I like my bar width.

So does anyone have any other suggestions? I do use SL(most of the time) and Sugar (all of the time) and I'm just stumped.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

 

[tespring]

Have you ever tried reducing the water when you mix the lye and then add it back right before you pour it? Another thing that one of the other HP'ers mentioned was they used Sodium Lactate. (I think that is what they call it.)

Hope those two suggestions help. I know one thing that I do is use a soup ladle to and scoop in small scoops in the bottom and the tap it out, then add a little more and keep doing that until the mold is full.
Good luck!

 

[agriffin]

We need nancy rogers! She is the queen of smooth HP.

 

[Stinkydancer]

Where is she???

I use the soup ladle too and the Sodium Lactate and add the liquid. But you know with HP you never get total liquid unless you do a milk soap and cook it- It's pretty smooth then!

Thanks so much for the tip.

I guess the cool part is that they have a look all their own and customers don't seem to mind but it's driving me completely crazy.

 

[NancyRogers]

We need nancy rogers! She is the queen of smooth HP.

Well, I don't know about that. I wish I could tell you how I do it, but it sounds like you do pretty much what I do. I use full water in my HP, I also use SL and sugar. I am really careful not to overcook it. As far as smoothing it in the mold goes, I just glop some in and tap the mold on the counter, glop some more, tap, glop, tap... Now I do mix my colors with some oil...generally Fractionated Coconut Oil and mix those in after the cook. Maybe the little bit of added oil at the end helps. Can't really say.

Mine come out pretty smooth, but I still get holes. It's just the nature of the HP beast I think.

 

[Stinkydancer]

Ooooh I was afraid of that. I like the smoothness otherwise. Bigger sigh...looks like I'm trimming or just leaving it the heck alone.

Thanks so much for the help, I'm going to try maybe a teeny bit more water. I'll let you know how that works.

 

[Mayren]

I do the same as Nancy for CRockPot HP:
Full water at 28% lye concentration
1TBS sugar ppo (of oils)
3% Sodium Lactate ppo (of oils)
and I usually add coconut milk either to my heated oils before stickblend or after the cook depending on what I want to accomplish. I also mix my colors with some oil before putting in. All my adds other than coconut milk are usually at the end and tend to make the pour smoother. I love love my In-the-Pot-Swirls with HP.

I love my CrockPot HP too much to ever really do much CP.

here's my swirl pics:

 

[paillo]

wow mayren, those are beautiful! i've stuck to CP cuz i almost always do swirls or embeds, but after seeing these i can't wait to try HP loaves! have done only one batch of HP to put in individual molds, but didn't like the results. obviously i wasn't doing something right

 

[American Valkyrie]

Mayren, those are gorgeous! I love the browns in the top soap... when I think about browns, I tend to think they're boring. But those aren't.

 

[Mayren]

Thanks, I didn't mean to hijack the thread - just give my method for doing crock pot HP and show my results to give the Original Poster some ideas of what is possible.

(The browns in my top soap are from Cocoa Powder dispersed in a little
water and a titch of oil and of course that helped the fluidity of that batch a ton. Call it Choco-Nilla Java due to cocoa powder and Vanilla FO with coffee grinds for kitchen scrubby soap )

 

[ChrissyB]

Beautiful soap.
HP is something I've tried my hand at a couple of times and it's never come out how I like it. I like the smooth glassy finish and feel that I get with CP.
Though, you've made me want to give it another shot, perhaps next time I want to to soap a finicky FO.

 

[NancyRogers]

Mayren, your HP looks fantastic. I bow down before your greatness.

 

[Mayren]

nuuuuuu Never bow to me. i'm just a lil Hobbyist and i love sharing the ideas and info. I'm in it for fun and like to help open possibilities.

I've been digging around the forum and you guys have awesome stuff.
I'm happy to get the chance to collaborate with you guys.

I loves the internets.